Witnessing the hilarity of the persecution complex that Christians, who make up the overwhelming majority of people in this country have got me thinking. Do you think that in some ways, they envy us and other religious minorities?

Atheists, Agnostics, and Neopagans are treated unfairly in this country, no where near to the degree that homosexuals, black people, Muslims, or women have, but we are still treated unfairly. The act of saying "I don't believe in god" is considered offensive and makes you unelectable if you had any political aspirations. Wearing a shirt that says proud to be an atheist is perceived as rude and disrespectful while wearing a shirt with a cross that says proud to be a Christian is a statement of ones religious beliefs. Its ok to have dozens and dozens of childrens books and movies promoting christianity but if one comes out that promotes atheism then its hate speech. Obama is not an atheist but the right attacks him for being a closet atheist when they aren't attacking him for being a closet Muslim as if that would make him a bad president.

Symbolic discrimination is in our country's pledge of allegiance and in our national motto because McCarthyists in the 50s wanted to stick it to atheism since the believed it was inseparable from Communism. Ignorant theists want to teach creationism in our school as a wedge of an overall goal to abolish religious pluralism, unaware that pluralism has done far more to strengthen American religious participation than tax supported, state religions, have in those countries like England that have it. People in certain parts of the country have lost jobs over it. Parents have disowned their children over it.

But are there, for many of us, advantages to being a minority? Certainly all of the above suck, particularly losing your job or your family, but do you ever get the feeling of pride that you're part of this relatively small club? Whenever you hear that some famous high achieving person subscribes to this philosophy or one close to it like agnosticism or deism or secular humanism that you get a sense of pride that you might not have gotten if you were a majority and found out that person was also a member of the majority? I sometimes feel as though that membership in this minority group gives me the sense of pride of being a member of the minority group of people who got a high score on their IQ test would.

I am an ex-vegetarian as well and in a lot of ways, when I was in those circles I got the same feeling, even if people made a point saying dickish things like "I didn't crawl my way up the food chain to eat carrots," or immediately becoming political and defensive, attacking my diet or labeling vegetarians as weak. Neopagans seem to act as though they feel the same way, while lamenting jerk-ass behavior from non pagans that label them satan worshipers.

I am not saying atheism is trendy. It isn't. If it were trendy, we wouldn't be minorities. But seeing as our persecution as Atheists who live in America doesn't usually involve us picking cotton, lynching, gas chambers, or prison, do you think there could be some envy among members of the majority group for us and that is why they seem to want to create this persecution complex?